What a Michigan winter: Unless you're 130, you've never seen snow like this

6:15 PM, March 1, 2014

Steve Steiner of Commerce Township shovels his driveway in mid-February. 'When you combine the snow and the cold, there's nobody alive that has experienced a winter worse,' said Rich Pollman of the National Weather Service. / Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press

The last time Detroiters endured such a cold and snowy winter, a leading industry in town was cigars, J.L. Hudson was preparing to open his first downtown store and the University of Michigan just recently had began playing football.

That was 1880-81 — more than 130 winters ago.

“When you combine the snow and the cold, there’s nobody alive that has experienced a winter worse,” said Rich Pollman, warning coordination meteorologist for the White Lake Township office of the National Weather Service.

He compiled weather statistics showing where the Detroit area ranks with snow fall totals, number of days snow has been stuck on the ground and below-zero days. The records confirm what many living here already thought: It’s been brutal.

So far this season, 79.2 inches of snow has fallen at Detroit Metro Airport, making this the second snowiest season after 1880-81, when 93.6 inches of snow fell.

And the Detroit area ranks third for most consecutive days with at least one inch of snow on the ground. There have been 60 consecutive days so far, shy of the all-time record of 74 days from March 1978.

There’s still plenty of time to move up on those lists.

The average temperature this winter is calculated by the NWS using the winter meteorological months — December, January and February. It was 21 degrees as of Thursday, a tie for eighth coldest.

That average could drop slightly because of today’s temperatures, which hit zero degrees, but it shouldn’t affect the ranking, Pollman said. The all-time coldest winter was 1903-1904, when temperatures averaged 18.8 degrees.

The Detroit area also has experienced 13 below-zero days, tying it for seventh place, and 68 days below freezing days — 32 degrees or lower for a high temperature — this season, NWS records show.

“We still have the month of March to go,” Pollman said.

March typically averages about 6 or 7 days that never get above freezing, he said, which means the numbers likely will increase before the season is over, as will snow fall totals.

There is a chance of snow showers Saturday morning though it shouldn’t amount to much accumulation, and then Saturday night and Sunday morning a system is moving in that is expected to dump 2 to 4 inches of snow, Pollman said.

This season’s weather can be attributed to a persistent pattern we’ve been in since mid-October, he said.

“The jet stream has been pushing north into Alaska and then diving south across central Canada into the eastern half of the United States,” Pollman said.